Aikman is the epitome of a Hall of Famer

By Hugo Guzman  |   Thursday, February 09, 2006  |  Comments( 1 )

Dallas Cowboys
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Some people will try and tell you that Troy Aikman is not deserving of a first ballot Hall of Fame induction. Those people are just flat out wrong. Either way, that is now nothing more than a moot point because Aikman is one of six former players to be inducted this past weekend.

But let's get back to that silly point. The naysayers point to Aikman's career regular season stats and to the fact that he played alongside a host of Pro Bowl and Hall of Fame caliber players on those fabled Dallas Cowboys teams of the early to mid-90's.

As far as the stats are concerned, it's difficult for a guy to amass otherworldly stats when he plays on a predominantly run-oriented team. However, Aikman was still able to throw for nearly 33,000 yards and 165 touchdowns in 12 NFL seasons with the Dallas Cowboys. More importantly, he saved his finest performances for the postseason. In 16 postseason appearances, three of which were Super Bowl wins, Aikman completed nearly 64% of his passes and threw 24 touchdowns to just 17 interceptions. Keep in mind that 7 of those INT's came in the twilight of his career when the Cowboys were in a state of decline, so in his prime he threw two postseason touchdowns for every one interception.

The argument regarding the level of talent around him is even easier to dismiss. Does anyone fault Joe Montana for having so much talent around him? How about Jim Kelly? He had a similar amount of talent around him, but was still unable to secure a Super Bowl win in four tries. That's no slight on Kelly. It's just a testament of how difficult it is for a quarterback to win a Super Bowl ring, much less three, regardless of how much talent they have around them.

Aikman had a remarkable ability to find the right guy at the right time when it mattered most. That's what made him great, and that's why he's a first ballot Hall of Famer.
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About Hugo Guzman

Trying to bring an objective approach to NFL analysis.
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